oT^oToi 


THE 


Missionary  Crisis 

-IN- 


CHINA 


By  REV.  S.  H.  CHESTER,  D.D. 


Nashville,  Tennessee 

PRESS  OF  MARSHALL  & BRUCE  COMPANY 
1901 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS 
IN  CHINA. 


By  REV.  S.  H.  CHESTER,  D.D. 


There  are  several  things  concerning 
China  about  which  the  minds  of  students 
of  present  day  problems  have  been  agi- 
tated which  may  now  be  regarded  as 
closed  questions.  The  first  of  these  is 
the  question  of  China  as  a military 
power.  At  the  beginning  of  the  recent 
troubles  the  periodicals  of  the  country 
were  full  of  alarming  statements  by  those 
who  might  have  been  supposed  to  know 
whereof  they  spoke,  as  to  the  millions  of 
soldiers  that  China  had  been  drilling  in 
modem  methods  since  her  war  with  Ja- 
pan, and  the  unlimited  supply  of  modern 
arms,  manufactured  or  imported,  with 
which  her  arsenals  were  stored.  Many 
were  led  to  believe  that  she  would  not 
only  be  able  to  oppose  an  effective  re- 
sistance to  any  foreign  invasion,  but  that 
she  was  in  danger  of  becoming  a foreign 

Note — Address  delivered  before  the  Missionary 
Society  of  Louisville  Seminary. 


4 THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

invader  herself,  and  that  the  “Yellow 
Peril”  was  something  which  the  nations 
of  the  West  had  good  cause  to  fear. 

While  reading  these  statements  I re- 
called an  interview  which  I had,  in  1897, 
with  Gen.  Jones,  former  Confederate 
brigadier,  then  our  United  States  Consul 
at  Chinkiang.  He  told  me  of  a visit 
which  he  had  recently  paid  to  Li  Hung 
Chang,  at  Tientsin.  He  said  that  after 
a gorgeous  feast  with  which  he  was  re- 
galed he  was  asked  by  Li  Hung  Chang 
to  go  out  and  review  a body  of  about 
twenty  thousand  troops,  which  Li  Hung 
Chang  was  endeavoring  to  have  trained 
and  put  upon  a modern  military  basis. 
When  the  troops  had  been  put  through 
their  maneuvers,  his  host  turned  to  him 
and  said:  “What  do  you  think  of  my 
army?”  Gen.  Jones  replied:  “I  suppose 
you  wish  me  to  tell  you  the  truth?” 
“Yes,”  said  Li  Hung  Chang,  “let  me 
have  your  honest  opinion.”  “Well,”  said 
Gen.  Jones,  “vour  army  is  not  worth 

, anything  at  all.”  Li  Hung 

Chang  replied,  “Well,  I know  that  is 
true,  but  it  is  the  best  I can  do  with  the 
material  now  at  my  disposal.”  This  was 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


5 


the  body  of  troops  with  which  the  allied 
forces  first  came  into  collision  at  Tien- 
tsin. It  seemed  for  a time  as  if  they 
might  be  going  to  make  an  effectual 
resistance.  They  were  able  to  over- 
whelm Admiral  Seymour’s  little  band  of 
y.8oo  marines,  and  prevent  its  progress 
towards  Pekin.  But  just  so  soon  as 
there  was  anything  that  could  be  called 
an  army  representing  the  Western 
powers  on  the  field  this  body  of  troops, 
and  all  the  imperial  forces,  together  with 
the  bands  of  Boxers  in  the  vicinity, 
seemed  to  vanish  from  the  scene,  and 
the  allied  troops  marched  into  Pekin 
practically  without  opposition.  It  is  evi- 
dent, therefore,  that  whatever  settlement 
is  made  between  the  Western  powers 
and  China  will  be  one  into  which  the 
question  of  China  as  a military  power 
does  not  enter.  The  people  of  China 
furnish  as  fine  raw  material  for  soldiers 
as  those  of  any  other  nation,  but  the 
conditions  will  have  to  be  greatly 
changed  before  their  military  capacities 
can  be  utilized. 

Another  closed  question,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  the  much  talked  of  partition  of 


6 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


China.  Russia  desires  to  dominate,  and 
possibly  own,  Manchuria,  in  order  to 
protect  her  Trans-Siberian  Railway  and 
trade  which  traverses  that  province.  She 
will  take  possession  of  it  whenever  the 
other  Western  powers  consent,  but  she 
is  not  ready  to  go  to  war,  either  with 
Japan  or  England,  for  that  purpose. 
Every  Western  power  having  trade  in- 
terests in  the  far  East  needs  somewhere 
in  that  part  of  the  world  a naval  base 
for  the  rendezvous  and  coaling  of  its 
ships.  These  they  already  have.  Ad- 
miral Dewey  selected  ours  for  us  at  Ma- 
nila. England  has  hers  at  Hong-Kong 
and  Wei-Hei-Wei;  Germany,  at  Kaiou- 
chow;  Russia,  at  Port  Arthur,  and 
Erance,  at  Tonquin.  For  them  the  pos- 
session of  any  of  China’s  territory 
beyond  these  naval  bases  would  simply 
be  a burden  without  any  compensating 
advantages.  What  they  all  want  is  the 
“open  door”  for  trade.  This  “open  door” 
they  want  for  the  whole  of  China,  and 
not  for  a small  part  of  it,  as  would  be  the 
case  if  the  Chines  Empire  were  disin- 
tegrated and  partitioned  among  them. 

The  open  door  means  freedom  of  in- 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


7 


gress  and  egress,  and  security  for  the  life 
and  property  of  those  who  are  engaged 
in  exploiting  the  material  resources  of 
the  country.  It  means,  therefore,  at  the 
same  time  the  “open  door”  for  the  gos- 
pel. This  is  what  the  church  of  Christ 
asks  in  regard  to  China.  It  asks  no 
aid  of  consuls  and  gunboats  for  the  pur- 
pose of  forcing  the  Christian  religion 
upon  an  unwilling  people.  It  only  asks 
the  same  protection  that  is  accorded  the 
diplomat  and  the  trader  for  its  represen- 
tatives while  they  go  and  tell  those  who 
are  willing  to  hear  it  the  story  of  the 
gospel.  And  this  is  manifestly  what 
Providence  has  had  in  view  in  permit- 
ting all  the  terrible  things  that  have  re- 
cently come  to  pass  in  China.  While 
making  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him, 
and  restraining  the  remainder  thereof, 
He  has  been  answering  the  prayer  of  His 
people  for  a hundred  years  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  preaching  the  gospel  in  China. 
And  now  in  this  providential  answering 
of  its  prayer  the  church  stands  con- 
fronted with  what  is  perhaps  its  greatest 
opportunity  and  its  greatest  responsibil- 


8 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


ity  since  the  era  of  modern  missions  be- 
gan. 

I.  The  evangelization  of  China  is  im- 
mensely important  for  the  world’s  sake, 
and  for  its  own  sake  as  a member  of  the 
family  of  nations.  Sir  Robert  Hart,  who 
knows  China  in  a political  way  better 
than  any  other  living  man,  expresses 
the  opinion  that  the  only  two  possible 
things  to  prevent  China’s  becoming  a 
curse  to  herself  and  a menace  to  man- 
kind are  its  partition,  which  he  thinks  is 
impossible  without  a devastating  Euro- 
pean war  as  one  result  of  it,  or  its  Chris- 
tianization, which  he  rightly  thinks  is 
hopeless  without  a vastly  greater  expen- 
diture of  energy  and  means  than  are  now 
being  employed  in  that  work.  After  ages 
of  successful  effort  to  defy  the  law  of 
change  and  maintain  the  status  quo  of  the 
times  of  Abraham  and  the  Pharaoh’s, 
the  time  has  come  at  last  for  the  civili- 
zation of  the  West  to  suplpant  the  old, 
effete,  and  dying  civilization  of  China. 
The  present  Emperor,  and  many  of  the 
greatest  men  in  China,  are  in  favor  of 
this  change.  Their  effort  to  introduce  it 
was  temporarily  defeated  by  the  repre- 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


9 


sentatives  of  the  old  order,  but  the  meth- 
ods of  those  who  defeated  them  brought 
them  into  collision  with  the  powers  of 
the  West,  by  whom  they  were  in  turn 
defeated,  and  now  it  is  as  certain  as  any- 
thing human  can  be  that  the  old  order 
must  change  and  give  place  to  the  new. 
In  another  quarter  of  a century  China, 
supplied  with  railroads,  schools,  facto- 
ries, trained  Armies,  and  a revolutionized 
government,  will  be  hurrying  after  Ja- 
pan on  the  paths  of  modern  progress. 

There  are  those  who  say,  “If  this  be  so, 
why  not  let  the  evangelization  of  China 
wait  until  civilization  has  gone  ahead 
and  prepared  the  way  for  it?”  A little 
mental  philosophy  and  a little  history 
are  all  one  needs  to  know  to  answer  that 
suggestion.  The  mental  philosophy  of 
the  case  is  that  the  human  mind,  like 
nature,  abhors  a vacuum.  No  doubt  our 
Western  education  will  soon  expel  from 
the  minds  of  the  Chinese  the  nature  su- 
perstitions which  are  the  basis  of  their 
present  religions,  and  the  scream  of  the 
railroad  whistle  will  frighten  away  many 
of  the  demons  of  earth  and  air  that  have 
terrorized  them.  As  soon  as  this  is  done 


10  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

the  place  which  these  things  have  occu- 
pied in  their  minds  will  be  taken  up  by 
something  else.  And  if  the  true  religion 
is  not  there  to  take  the  place  of  them, 
that  which  will  do<  so  will  be  educated 
materialism  and  atheism.  The  history 
of  the  case  is  that  this  is  what  has  oc- 
curred to  a large  degree  in  India  and 
Japan.  And  we  have  learned  in  these 
countries  that  educated  atheism  is  a 
much  more  difficult  foe  for  Christian 
missions  to  deal  with  than  uneducated 
Buddhism  and  Brahmanism.  Moreover, 
we  may  well  remember  that  our  civiliza- 
tion, Christian  though  we  call  it,  is  not 
altogether  so.  It  has  its  vices  as  well 
as  its  virtues,  and  the  things  which  the 
heathen  have  affinity  for  and  first  lay 
hold  on  when  they  come  into>  contact 
with  it,  as  rerpesented  by  the  trader  and 
soldier,  are  its  vices  rather  than  its  vir- 
tues. And  so,  whether  our  Wetsern  civ- 
ilization in  the  long  run,  will  do  China 
more  harm  than  good,  depends  on 
whether  we  shall  succeed  in  giving  her 
along  with  it  our  Christian  religion, 
which  is  the  basis  of  all  that  is  good  in 
our  civilization,  and  the  only  thing  that 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


11 


can  make  any  nation  truly  civilized  and 
great. 

II.  But  the  chief  importance  of  evan- 
gelizing China  arises  out  of  certain  facts 
in  regard  to  her  position,  and  certain 
characteristics  of  her  people,  which 
would  make  a converted  China  the  great- 
est of  all  instruments  for  the  evangeli- 
zation of  the  rest  of  the  Eastern  world. 

i.  In  respect  of  natural  resources,  ex- 
cepting the  United  States  of  America, 
China  is  the  greatest  country  in  the 
world.  Lying  in  the  north  temperate 
zone,  where  all  the  strong  races  of  the 
earth  are  found,  the  church  in  China  will 
possess  more  native  energy  and  vigor 
than  those  established  among  the  ener- 
vated people  of  the  tropics.  Its  deposits 
of  coal,  iron,  and  all  the  precious  metals, 
as  yet  untouched  and  undeveloped,  are 
ample  for  the  needs  of  the  civilization 
that  is  to  be.  In  the  north  and  in  the 
south  much  of  the  soil  is  poor  and  dry,  and 
for  the  people  of  these  sections  life  will, 
perhaps,  always  be  as  it  is  now,  simply  a 
struggle  for  existence.  But  in  Central 
China,  between  the  Yangtse  and  Hoang 


12  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

rivers,  lies  the  great  plain,  averaging 
from  150  to  200  miles  in  breadth,  and 
running  back  several  hundred  miles  in 
the  interior.  This  is  the  largest  and 
most  fertile  body  of  valley  land  to  be 
found  in  one  body  anywhere  in  the 
world.  The  method  of  cultivation  em- 
ployed is  very  primitive  but  very  effect- 
ive. The  old  wooden  plow  that  is  still 
in  use  to  stir  the  surface  is  a fac  simile 
of  the  one  that  Noah  made  the  day  after 
he  came  out  of  the  ark.  The  sub-soil  is 
dug  deep  with  the  same  old  pick,  of 
which  pictures  are  found  on  the  most 
ancient  Egyptian  monuments.  The 
clods  are  carefully  pulverized  by  the  fin- 
gers of  the  people.  Every  evening  at 
sunset  during  the  crop  season  the  fields 
are  full  of  women  and  children,  each  with 
a gourd  of  liuid  fertilizer  and  a small 
gourd  with  which  they  apply  it  to  each 
separate  and  individual  plant.  In  this 
way  the  quality  of  the  soil  has  not  only 
been  preserved  unimpaired,  but  has  been 
improved  from  age  to  age,  until  it  has 
now  reached  an  almost  incredible  degree 
of  fertility.  And  so,  although  that  re- 
gion is  perhaps  more  densely  populated 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


13 


than  any  other  part  of  the  earth’s  sur- 
face, the  farming  people  of  the  Yangtse 
Valley  are  able  to  get  for  themselves 
and  their  families  three  square  meals  a 
day,  of  rice  and  beans  and  vegetables, 
seasoned  with  fish  from  the  canals,  and 
to  which  are  added  roast  pig  or  duck, 
and  sundry  sweet  meats  on  feast  days. 
They  are  a well-fed  and  well-to-do  peo- 
ple as  compared  with  the  peasantry  of 
some  of  the  older  countries  in  Europe. 
The  church  established  in  this  part  of 
China  will  have  no  need  to  be  a pension- 
er on  the  bounty  of  Christendom.  It 
will  not  only  be  able  to  be  self-support- 
ing and  self-propagating,  but  will  pos- 
sess material  resources  enough  to  make 
it  able  to  be  an  aggressive  power  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  rest  of  the  Eastern 
world. 

2.  Next  to  the  white  Caucasian  race, 
who  are  always  and  everywhere  God’s 
kings  of  men,  the  opinion  of  those  who 
know  them  best  is  that  the  Chinese  are, 
in  respect  to  their  capacities,  the  great- 
est people  in  the  world.  Physically,  they 
are  far  superior  to  any  other  people  of 
the  Orient.  The  Canton  coolie,  whom 


14 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


we  know  in  this  country  as  our  laundry- 
man,  is  far  from  being  a representative 
specimen  of  his  race.  Many  of  these  we 
see  in  the  Yangtse  Valley  are  six  feet 
tall,  strong  and  stalwart  in  their  devel- 
opment, and  possesses  unequaled  capaci- 
ties of  physical  endurance. 

The  Chinaman,  as  we  know  him  to- 
day, possesses  some  very  unlovely  traits 
of  character.  One  does  not  know 
whether  to  be  more  offended  or  amused 
at  his  monumental  and  preposterous 
conceit.  He  is  devoid  of  sentiment,  cold, 
materialistic,  and  utilitarian  in  his  view 
of  life.  When  his  passions  are  aroused 
he  has  a tiger-like  ferocity  and  cruelty. 
In  ordinary  conversation  he  will  tell  you 
the  truth  only  when  he  thinks  he  will 
deceive  you  by  so  doing.  Some  one 
asked  a Chinese  scholar  for  his  estimate 
as  to  how  many  Chinamen  out  of  every 
hundred  would  lie.  His  answer  was, 
“one  hundred  and  one.”  They  were 
thought  to  hold  the  world’s  record  in 
that  line  until,  during  the  late  troubles, 
the  representatives  of  the  Western  As- 
sociated Press,  at  Shanghai,  achieved  a 
reputation  for  mendacity  which,  perhaps, 


THE  MIS  SION  AH  Y CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


15 


may  require  a revision  of  the  world’s 
judgment  on  the  matter. 

It  has  been  shown,  however,  that 
some  of  these  traits  are  not  innate  and 
ineradicable,  but  are  a product  of  their 
environment,  which  may  be  changed 
when  the  environment  is  changed.  Lie- 
ing,  for  instance,  is  characteristic  of  al- 
most all  the  people  who  live  under  des- 
potic governments,  being  the  natural  ref- 
uge of  the  weak  from  the  oppression  of 
the  strong.  The  Chinaman  possesses, 
naturally,  some  fine  traits,  which  furnish 
a basis  upon  which,  under  the  regener- 
ating and  sanctifying  power  of  the  gos- 
pel, a noble  character  may  be  built.  His 
intellectual  capacity  may  be  gauged  by 
the  fact  that  for  ages  it  is  he  who  has 
given  his  civilization,  literature,  philos- 
ophy, and  religion  to  the  people  of  all 
the  surrounding  nations.  He  is  sober- 
minded,  industrious,  inclined  to  be 
peaceable,  and  has  an  invincible  respect 
for  authority  and  law.  The  world  fur- 
nishes no  parallel  to  his  patience  and  per- 
severance in  carrying  out  any  enterprise 
which  he  undertakes.  In  1873  Gen. 
Tsotsung  Chang  was  commissioned  to 


16  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

proceed  from  Pekin  to  the  far  South  to 
suppress  an  army'of  brigands  and  pirates 
who  were  ravaging  that  section.  It  took 
him  about  three  years  to  accomplish  the 
journey  with  his  army.  Several  times  it 
was  found  necessary  to  turn  his  army 
into  an  agricultural  colony  and  to  plant 
and  raise  crops  for  its  necessary  supplies. 
The  obstacles  in  his  way  were  deemed 
by  many  to  be  insuperable,  but  he  never 
once  hesitated  or  halted  in  his  efforts 
until  at  the  end  of  nine  years  he  was  able 
to  report  to  the  emperor  that  his  mission 
was  thoroughly  accomplished.  When  a 
Chinese  student  sets  out  to  gain  a liter- 
ary degree  as  his  qualification  for  public 
office,  he  makes  a lifetime  business  of 
it  until  he  succeeds.  In  1899  ^ie  g°v“ 
ernor  of  one  province  reported  at  the 
competitive  examination  nine  candidates 
over  eighty  years  of  age,  and  two  over 
ninety.  The  governor  of  another  prov- 
ince reported  thirteen  candidates  over 
eighty,  and  one  over  ninety.  A third 
governor  reported  thirty-five  candidates 
over  eighty,  and  eighteen  over  ninety. 
Unfetter  such  people  from  the  bonds  of 
ignorant  superstition  and  give  them  the 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


17 


problems  of  real  science  and  truth  to 
work  at,  and  it  staggers  us  to  think  what 
results  in  the  way  of  scholarship  would 
be  achieved.  Make  such  a people  Chris- 
tian, and  they  will  make  Christian 
thought  dominant  in  the  far  East,  as 
they  have  done  heretofore  with  their 
Confucianism  in  their  ancestral  worship. 

Another  distinguishing  characteristic 
of  the  Chinese  among  the  Eastern  peo- 
ples is  what  we  may  call  their  Calvinistic 
temperament.  “The  decrees  of  heaven” 
and  “the  will  of  heaven”  are  among  the 
most  frequent  phrases  in  their  literature 
and  in  their  speech.  As  the  word  “heav- 
en” now  represents  to  them  a blind,  in- 
visible power,  or  a host  of  malignant 
spirits,  the  result  is  that  they  are  a na- 
tion of  fatalists  and  pessimists.  But  if 
what  they  understand  by  heaven  were 
supplanted  by  what  the  Bible  reveals  of 
the  true  God  and  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  their  natural  transforma- 
tion would  be  into  a nation  of  Pauline 
optimists  and  predestinarians.  When  we 
remember  the  part  played  in  Christian 
history  in  the  West  by  those  holding  this 
form  of  the  faith,  what  may  we  not  ex- 


18  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

pect  to  be  done  in  the  East  by  the  great 
and  populous  nation  of  China,  Christian- 
ized and  possessing  the  natural  charac- 
teristics which  insure  that  her  Christian- 
ity will  possess  the  same  robust,  sturdy 
and  aggressive  traits  as  that  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Augustine,  Calvin,  and  Knox? 

Perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  China- 
man’s qualities  is  his  well-known  relia- 
bility in  all  matters  which  he  recognizes 
as  involving  a responsibility  or  a trust. 
This  quality  seems  inconsistent  with 
some  of  the  other  qualities  I have  men- 
tioned. But  it  is  a fact  abundantly  prov- 
en by  the  best  of  evidence  that  he  pos- 
sesses it  in  a remarkable  degree.  A gen- 
tleman who  spent  twenty-five  years  in 
the  Chinese  silk  trade  recently  testified 
through  one  of  our  periodicals  that  in 
ordering  his  goods  from  a Chinese  mer- 
chant he  found  it  unnecessary  to  employ 
any  middleman  at  all.  He  had  only  to 
order  his  goods  by  correspondence,  and 
he  always  found  them  on  delivery  to  cor- 
respond exactly  with  the  quality  as  rep- 
resented by  the  Chinese  merchant.  In 
the  foreign  business  houses  in  the  coast 
cities  of  Japan,  as  well  as  those  of  China, 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


19 


you  will  find  that  the  employees  in  po- 
sitions of  trust  are  usually  Chinese,  and 
we  are  told  that  the  betrayal  of  a trust 
by  one  of  these  employees  is  almost  an 
unheardof  occurrence.  This  quality 
grows,  as  I believe,  partly  out  of  their 
Calvinistic  temperament,  and  partly  out 
of  their  industrial  system  through  the 
influence  of  heredity.  Every  trade  and 
profession  has  its  guild,  and  no  one  can 
pursue  any  calling  or  business  without 
being  a member  of  the  guild  which  rep- 
resents it.  Even  a street  beggar  must 
belong  to  the  “beggars’  guild,”  and  in 
order  to  steal  with  impunity  one  must 
belong  to  the  “thieves’  guild.”  The 
guild  holds  its  members  responsible  for 
its  business  reputation.  If  a member  of 
any  guild  brings  discredit  on  the  organi- 
zation by  betraying  his  trust  and  thereby 
injures  the  guild’s  business,  he  is  always 
severely  disciplined,  sometimes  to  the 
extent  of  being  knocked  on  the  head  and 
thrown  into  a canal.  And  so>  at  first 
through  fear  of  the  consequences,  and 
finally  through  the  influence  of  heredity, 
it  has  become  a part  of  the  Chinaman’s 
nature  to  feel  that  he  must  be  faithful 


20  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

to  a trust.  This  guild  feature  enters  into 
their  idea  of  the  Christian  church,  and 
perhaps  there  is  no  other  church  in 
Christendom  in  which  the  sense  of  the 
responsibility  of  church  membership  is 
so  strongly  developed  as  it  is  among  the 
one  hundred  thousand  members  of  the 
various  Protestant  churches  in  China. 
During  the  last  twelve  months  their 
fidelity  to  that  responsibility  has  been 
put  to  its  final  and  supreme  test.  And 
how  have  they  stood  the  test?  Even  the 
secular  papers  have  borne  witness  of  the 
heroic  fortitude  with  which  they  have 
endured  persecutions  as  savage  as  those 
which  the  early  Christians  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  Nero-  and  Caligula.  The 
outrages  of  the  Boxers  did  not  extend  to 
the  territory  occupied  by  our  Southern 
Presbyterian  missions,  but  the  fear  of 
these  outrages  was  constantly  before 
them,  and  the  ordinary  persecutions  to 
which  they  are  always  subjected  were 
much  intensified.  Our  missionaries  tell 
us  that,  so  far  as  they  know,  under  these 
persecutions  not  a single  communing 
member  of  their  churches  denied  the 
faith.  In  the  provinces  of  Chili  and 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA.  21 


Shantung  the  native  Christians  stood  up 
by  the  thousands  to  be  tempted  and 
sawn  asunder  and  slain  with  the  sword, 
when  all  they  had  to  do  tO'  be  left  in 
peace  was  to  betray  their  church  and 
deny  their  Lord  and  Saviour.  A nobler 
fidelity  and  a finer  heroism  than  theirs  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  records  of  church 
history.  What  does  this  mean  for  the 
future  of  the  church  in  China?  It  means 
that  we  have  there  a church  which  can 
be  trusted  to  meet  all  the  issues  of  the 
future,  however  trying  they  may  be,  as  it 
has  so  nobly  met  those  of  the  recent  past. 
It  means  what  it  has  always  meant  since 
our  Saviour  said,  “Except  a corn  of 
wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it 
abideth  alone;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit.”  If  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church, 
then  from  so  great  a sowing  as  the  blood 
of  ten  thousand  martyrs  we  may  expect 
that  God  will  give  us  a great  reaping. 
And  as  it  was  the  church  of  the  early 
martyrs  which  carried  the  gospel  to  ev- 
en7 part  of  the  world  that  was  then 
known  to  them,  so  we  may  expect  that 


22  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

this  martyr  church  in  China  will  prove  a 
mighty  evangelistic  power  in  all  the 
countries  of  the  far  East.  And  from 
that  church,  so  filled  with  the  spirit  of 
the  old  heroic  days,  perhaps  there  will 
come  back  to  us  the  influences  that  we 
need  to  bring  again  to  this  country  and 
to  Christian  Europe  that  revival  of  prim- 
itive Christianity  for  which  we  pray,  and 
without  which  we  shall  not  see  the  glory 
of  the  latter  days. 

Finally,  the  Chinese  are  a colonizing 
people,  with  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and 
adventure  that  carries  them  everywhere 
that  they  can  find  an  open  door  for  the 
bettering  of  their  condition.  The  most 
stringent  exclusion  laws,  and  sometimes 
the  most  cruel  and  unjust  treatment, 
have  not  availed  to  keep  multiplied  thou- 
sands of  them  from  entering  this  coun- 
try. There  are  swarms  of  them  in  Ja- 
pan, and  Korea,  and  Formosa,  and  the 
Phillippines,  and  Java,  and  Sumatra,  and 
Australia,  and  all  the  Pacific  Islands. 
Wherever  there  is  work  and  wages  and 
they  can  find  an  entrance  they  go.  This 
colonizing  spirit  ensures  that  the  church 


THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 


23 


in  China  will  be  a missionary  church,  as 
that  of  the  colonizing  Anglo-Saxon 
has  been.  With  a physical  constitu- 
tion adapted  to  all  climates  and  de- 
fiant of  all  hardships,  when  the  millions 
of  China  receive  the  gospel  they  will  fill 
the  Eastern  world  with  missionaries 
bearing  witness  of  the  Christ  who  has 
brought  them  out  of  their  bondage  of 
corruption  and  superstition  and  fear  into 
the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children 
of  God.  I do  not  advocate  the  idea  that 
our  church  should  do  less  than  it  is 
doing  in  any  other  field  in  order  to  do 
more  for  the  evangelization  of  China. 
Our  command  is  to  “Go  teach  all  na- 
tions,” and  the  day  will  come  when,  both 
as  individuals  and  as  a church,  we  must 
answer  to  Christ  for  our  obedience,  to 
that  command.  But,  taking  all  things 
into  consideration,  it  does  seem  to  me 
that  the  evangelization  of  China  is  the 
greatest  work  that  yet  remains  to  be 
done  in  this  world  till  Christ  shall  come 
again.  Happy  are  they  whom  God  shall 
call  to  a personal  participation  in  that 
work.  Only  less  happy  are  they  who, 


24  THE  MISSIONARY  CRISIS  IN  CHINA. 

being  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  givin 
to  it  their  personal  service,  are  willing  t 
give  their  time,  their  influence,  thei 
prayers  and  their  means  for  its  encou 
agement  and  support. 


BW8220  .C52 

The  missionary  crisis  in  China  ... 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 

III 

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